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Cummings expected to testify against ex-wife

'Ronald's obviously cutting a deal,' said Croslin's attorney

Ronald Cummings, father of HaLeigh Cummings, enters the Putnam County Courtroom of Judge Terry LaRue in shackles Monday. Cummings had his pre-trial plea on drug trafficking charges set to Aug. 20. By JON M. FLETCHER, Morris News Service

PALATKA -- A plea in the prescription drug-trafficking case of Ronald Cummings, who gained national attention with the story of his daughter's disappearance more than a year ago, would be squarely aimed at co-defendant Misty Croslin, her attorney said following a court hearing for Cummings on Monday.

Robert Fields said Cummings' offer to make a plea in three of five drug charges in exchange for dropping the other two meant he will likely testify against Croslin, who also was arrested in the undercover drug bust. Croslin, 18, was watching HaLeigh Cummings when the 5-year-old disappeared.

In a seven-minute court appearance Monday, Cummings' attorney and prosecutor Jason Lewis asked Circuit Judge Terry LaRue for a month to work out details.

Cummings' attorney, Terry Shoemaker, who was not available after Monday's hearing, did not say whether testifying in Croslin's case would be part of the deal. Cummings, 26, is scheduled to return to court Aug. 20.

In May, Shoemaker said he was pursuing a deal that would drop the two most serious charges so a sentence would reflect only the three less serious cases. Sentences are guided by the weight of the drugs sold.

Two of the charges are for amounts of prescription drugs that carry a minimum mandatory sentence of 25 years. Two others mandate 15-year sentences and one requires a three-year sentence.

Three other people, including a brother of Croslin and a cousin of Cummings, were arrested in the drug operation that ended in January.

The fifth person was a friend of Croslin. They were arrested selling pills to an undercover officer during a monthlong investigation.

Detectives with the Putnam County Sheriff's Office have used the arrests in the drug cases to ask questions about the missing girl. HaLeigh has not been found and Putnam County Sheriff Jeff Hardy has said he believes she is dead.

Fields said the questioning of co-defendants and the threat of them testifying against his client puts more pressure on Croslin but won't have an impact on the defense. He said Croslin has told detectives what she knows about HaLeigh's disappearance.

"If they don't want to act on that, that's their decision," he said.

HaLeigh disappeared in February 2009. Croslin, who was at the mobile home and initially told investigators she woke up to find the kindergartner gone, later was married to Cummings for a brief time in the summer, but the two divorced.

Cummings' mother, grandmother and sister were among those in the courtroom Monday.

After the hearing, his grandmother, Annette Sykes, said the family was hoping for the best. She said she was not aware of any plea details.

"We want what's best for Ronald," she said.

The family is planning an Aug. 10 vigil for HaLeigh, marking 18 months since she disappeared.